Decision Resources: Market for Alzheimer's disease drugs will expand

By Alaric DeArment

BURLINGTON, Mass. Biotech drugs for treating Alzheimer’s disease will more than triple the size of the market in several key countries over the next decade, according to a new report by industry research company Decision Resources.

The report showed that bapineuzumab, made by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, and Eli Lilly’s solanezumab will drive the market for Alzheimer’s drugs from 2009’s $4.3 billion to $13.3 billion in 2019 in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Whereas most current Alzheimer’s drugs are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, or AChEIs, which treat the disease’s cognitive symptoms without modifying its course, the new drugs have the potential to slow the rate of neural degeneration and cognitive decline, according to the report. Still, sales of AChEIs will remain strong through the decade.

“Despite increased generic competition and the launch of more-expensive and potentially more-efficacious therapies, AChEI sales will be buoyed through 2019,” Decision Resources director Bethany Kiernan said. “This will be largely due to an overall market expansion driven by increases in the number of drug-treated patients but also, to a lesser extent, by the launch of new formulations of branded AChEIs.”